Ethnocentrism
Voyager Reading Course- Lesson 8
Words and Phrases
Culture shock
Culture shock is the feelings of surprise or anxiety that you have when
you visit a foreign country or a place for the first time. You will
5 gradually get over your culture shock as you learn more and more of the
local language and customs.
Native Americans
Native Americans are the people from one of the races that lived in
North, South, and Central America before Europeans arrived. They
10 used to be wrongly called “American Indians” or “Indios.”
Before You Read
1. How do people from other cultures differ from us besides their
languages?
2. How can we get along well with people from different cultures?
15 Culture shock can be a very good lesson in
relative values and in understanding human
differences. The reason culture shock
occurs is that we are not prepared for these
differences. Because of the way we are
20 taught our culture, we are all ethnocentric.
This term is made up of the Greek root
"ethnos," meaning a people or group, and "centric," meaning the centre or
middle of something. Thus, it refers to the fact that our outlook or world view
On the other hand, one subgroup among those Alaskan natives call themselves
Inuit, which means "real people" (they obviously did not think eating raw meat
was anything out of the ordinary). So here is a contrast between one's own
55 group, which is real, and the rest of the world, which is not so "real." Both
terms, Eskimo and Inuit, are ethnocentric ―― one as an observation about
differences, the other as a self-evaluation. Now the term Inuit is more widely
used ―― especially among people living in Canada ―― perhaps because of
its origin, though in some areas there are people who prefer to be called
60 Eskimo.
Another example of ethnocentrism in language can be found in the origin of
the English word barbarian. Originally a Greek word, it was used to refer to
tribes that lived around the edge of ancient Greek society. The Greeks referred
to these people as "bar-bars" because they could not understand their speech.
65 "Bar-bar" was the Greek word for the sound a dog makes, like the word
bow-wow. This is an ancient example of ethnocentrism. The Greeks considered
those people to be on the same level as dogs, because their speech, just like
dogs', could not be understood. They did not consider such people as human
beings; this is similar to the way the word Eskimo gives those people
70 subhuman status.
is centred on our own way of life. Ethnocentrism is the belief that one's own
Food preferences are perhaps the most familiar aspect of ethnocentrism.
25 patterns of behaviour are the best: the most natural, beautiful, right, or
Every culture has developed preferences for certain kinds of food and drink,
important. Therefore, other people, to the extent that they live differently, are
and equally strong negative attitudes toward others. It is interesting to note that
perceived as living by standards that are inhuman, unnatural, or wrong.
much of this ethnocentrism is in our minds and not in our tongues, for
Ethnocentrism is the view that one's own culture is better than all others; it is
the way all people feel about themselves as compared to those from other
30 cultures. There is no one in our society who is not ethnocentric to some degree,
no matter how open-minded he or she might claim to be. People will always
75 something can taste good until we are told what it is. We have all heard stories
about people who were given a meal of snake or horse meat and said how nice
it tasted ―― but when they were told what they had just eaten, they turned
green and hurriedly asked to be excused from the table.
find some aspect of another culture unnatural, be it religious practices, a way
Certain food preferences seem natural to us. We usually do not know that they
of treating friends or relatives, or simply a food that they cannot manage to get
80 are natural only because we have grown up with them; they are quite likely to
down with a smile. This is not something we should be ashamed of, since it is
be unnatural to someone from a different culture. In Southeast Asia, for
35 a natural result of growing up in any society. However, it is something we
example, the majority of adults do not drink milk. To many Westerners it is
should constantly keep in mind when we study other cultures, so that when we
inconceivable that people in other parts of the world do not drink milk, since to
try to make value judgments about another way of life, we can look at the
people in the West it is a "basic" food. In some parts of China, dog meat is
situation objectively and take our bias into account.
Ethnocentrism can be seen in many aspects of culture ―― myths, folktales,
40 proverbs, and even language. For example, in many languages, especially
those of non-Western societies, the word used to refer to one's own tribe or
ethnic group literally means "humankind" or "human beings." This suggests
that members of other groups are perceived as less than human. For example,
the term Eskimo, once used to refer to groups that live in the arctic and
45 sub-arctic regions, is said to be a Native American word used by neighbours of
the Eskimos. The once popular explanation of this is that the neighbours gave
them the name "Eskimo" when they observed the Eskimos' particular way of
eating meat. The word "Eskimo" was thought to mean "eater of raw meat" in
the neighbours' language. This meaning is based on an ethnocentric
50 observation about cultural practices that were usual to one group and unusual
to another.
85 something especially good to eat; but the thought of eating a dog is enough to
make most Westerners feel sick.. Yet we can see how this is part of a cultural
pattern. Many people in the West keep dogs as pets and tend to think of dogs as
almost human. Therefore, they would not dream of eating dog meat. Horses,
too, sometimes become pets, and horse meat is also rejected by most
90 Westerners, although not because of its taste. They may have eaten it without
knowing it, and they probably would not recognize it if someone didn't tell
them what they were eating. On the other hand, Westerners generally do not
feel affection for cows or pigs, and they eat their meat without any feeling of
regret. But in India a cow receives the kind of care that a horse or even a dog
95 receives in the West, and the attitude of Indians toward eating beef is similar to
Westerners' feelings about eating dog meat. Food preferences, therefore, seem
to be determined according to whether the animals in question are treated as
special in a particular culture.